The Impossible Town
by DayDreamer16820
Summary: The TARDIS has always taken the Doctor where he needed to be and when he drops to his lowest points, it brings him to a town that shouldn't exist. Troubled by Storybrooke's presence, the Doctor runs only to have the TARDIS bring him back again and again. OUAT/Doctor Who crossover written for my boyfriend's birthday and posted here in honor of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.


**A.N.:** HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY DOCTOR WHO! As promised, here is the Once Upon a Time/Doctor Who crossover I wrote back in October for my boyfriend's birthday. It is a one-shot and I have no intentions on expanding it. I may write more Doctor Who/OUAT crosses in the future but for now let's focus on finishing "War of Hearts" and "Sociopathic Tendencies". Anyways, read and review!

**The Impossible Town**

The wind swirled around, carrying the autumn leaves away with it as the sound of the TARDIS's engines rang out into the empty space. No one was around to witness the wonderful ship appear in the middle of the forest. No hikers or bikers out and about and any animals that were in the forest had scurried off into hiding the moment it started to appear. The door slowly opened and the Doctor slowly stepped out; attempting to figure out where he was this time.

The forest showed signs that autumn was in full swing. In the Doctor's opinion it was the perfect place to reflect and gather ones thoughts. He leaned against the police phone box and let out a sigh. It had been so long since he had had someone to travel with that he was beginning to miss having someone to talk to. On occasion he would talk out loud either to himself or even to the TARDIS but there was never anyone to reply; no one to smile in wonder at the amazing thing he had just said. No one to appreciate the beauty and grandness that was his world of time travel.

And that, among other things, made him bitter. Normally, he would return home when he found himself alone and needing someone to talk to but now, he had no choice but to carry on by himself. There was no one left of his kind; no more Time Lords. No more Gallifrey. The Last Great Time War had ended and he was alone. It didn't seem very fair but the Doctor had lived long enough to know that life was not fair; not in the slightest.

He had wondered away from his ship and came across a two way road that seemed to go right through the forest all the way. The Doctor continued walking; deep in thought and not really paying attention to his surroundings. It wasn't until he bumped into something that he realized the distance he had walked away from the TARDIS. He looked up to see what it was that he had run into. Nothing. Before him was nothing but the road and the forest. He hadn't run into a tree or a pole. Raising an eyebrow, the Doctor reached forward until his hand made contact with something. The air around his hand ripped like water and his skin tingled. Pulling it away, he dug the sonic screwdriver out of his leather jacket and scanned whatever invisible thing was before him.

It seemed to be some type of force field but the screwdriver couldn't read what kind or where it was coming from or what it was protecting. Staring in disbelief down the road before him, he carefully put the screwdriver away. It wasn't the fact that there was an invisible wall in front of him protecting who knew what that bothered him. It was the fact that not only did the sonic seem to be unable to get a reading but the TARDIS had said nothing about there being any kind of force field or ship or anything nearby. And it should have, just like the sonic should have at least been able to tell him what kind of technology it was made from.

"State of the art," He murmured to himself, "But it's all wrong."

The Doctor turned sharply and began heading back to his ship. Wherever he was, something was wrong; very wrong. It was almost as if the sonic and the TARDIS were denying that shield's existence and if that was the case, he had only two choices. Either he left now and never returned or he tried to find a way past the block and put an end to whatever was behind its plans. As he passed the first line of trees, he stopped in his tracks. He was so used to having to save the human race from other species that he automatically assumed that whatever was behind that force field was plotting this world's end.

He shook his head and started his trek again. Perhaps they were just a civilization that was displaced and were trying to find a way home or where simply studying the humans to help advance their own species. There was nothing wrong with that.

He would have believed that and kept on walking and traveling without giving the place a second thought if a child's scream didn't suddenly sound. He turned around and dove behind a tree and watched to see that a little boy had appeared suddenly on the road; just before the force field. He was staring back down the empty road. The Doctor would have thought that perhaps he had just run into the shield and it startled him had it not been what had appeared on the other side.

Plain as day, as if the shield was gone were a sheriff's car and a beat up orange minivan. The sheriff's car seemed to be blocking the van from leaving and while the sheriff was arresting the driver, a woman seemed to be trying to convince the boy to come back with her. The Doctor couldn't hear what was being said as he was much too far away and before he even got a chance to intervene, the boy took off in the other direction down the road. As he ran by, the Doctor noticed a sign saying "Welcome to Storybrooke". Curious name; Storybrooke, Maine.

The Doctor stayed and watched as the sheriff took the driver away. A tow truck came and towed the orange minivan but what was interesting was the woman. This raven haired woman, beautiful by human standards, remained where she was the entire time, looking off where the child had run away. Tears were filling her eyes and a look of loneliness covered her face. He recognized that look. He had seen it across his own face and in his own eyes many times when looking in the mirror. Even when he had an entourage of companions, there was always a part of him that felt alone. That feeling was deeper now knowing that he was the last of his kind.

As time ticked by, the woman's image started to fade away. The shield's visibility defense was fixing itself since being broken by the boy's sudden departure. She was completely gone when a state trooper's car pulled up. That same little boy came charging out and stared at where the woman should have been standing; where the town's welcome sign should have been.

He turned and desperately tried to convince the two state troopers that what had happened to him was real. They merely smiled sadly down at him and one even said that there wasn't even a Storybrooke on the map. That small, insignificant sentence caught not only the boy's attention, but the Doctor's as well. They both had seen the sign, seen people from the town. So how come it seemed as if the entire rest of the human race was ignorant of Storybrooke? How was that even possible?

There was only one way to find out, the Doctor realized. As the boy turned and promised to find his father, the Doctor promised to find out what was Storybrooke and, if there was anything within it that needed stopping, to stop whoever they were. The boy went with the state troopers as the Doctor ran back to his TARDIS, determined to go back in time and figure out when this Storybrooke had arrived; when the force field had appeared.

* * *

The wind swirled around, blowing away any loose leaves and grass with it as the sound of the TARDIS rang out into empty space once more. Once again there was no one there to witness the ship's appearance and the animals scattered as fast as they could into hiding.

The Doctor stared at the scanner in disbelief. The TARDIS had brought him back to Storybrooke. But the force field was gone. He could see on the scanner the "Welcome to Storybrooke" sign plain as day. In fact, he had parked right next to it.

The scanner showed signs of human life in the town so it seemed perfectly reasonable to take a look. As soon as he stepped out of the TARDIS, he was quickly reminded of how wrong this place had felt to him last time. The urge to leave, to run, was intense but the Doctor had made it a habit to push on whenever that happened. He had his curiosity and his past companions to thank for that.

He rubbed his temple as he walked down the road. The last thing he wanted to think about was Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble. Beautiful Rose had absorbed the Time Vortex to save the world and him; nearly costing the girl's life and costing him a regeneration. When he had to save the world from the Daleks and the Cybermen at the same time; she was there with him, refusing to go away. And it had cost them both everything. They could never see each other again and it was all because she had to be so damn stubborn and so damn helpful. He had burned up a star to say goodbye but he never got the chance to say what he needed to say.

And then clever Martha Jones, studying to be a doctor, came along. She was only supposed to come for one trip but before they knew it they were running from the Family, saving Manhattan from the Daleks, and then reversing time to save the world from the Master. She had had to abandon him and her family in order to do it; had to become a solider. She had succeeded but she had changed so much, understood so much, that she left him. Martha Jones knew that there would be a day when the Doctor couldn't come to save the Earth so she took it upon herself to be part of the force that would.

And then there was wonderful Donna Noble. Brilliant, plucky Donna with her ginger hair. She had seen him at his worst and at his best and she understood; had compassion for him. She had been the best friend any Time Lord could ask for. And she had proved herself more than worthy of that when she became part of a metabolic crisis. She didn't even realize why she had to do it, she just knew and she and the Human Doctor had helped save the world. But like all his companions, it had cost her. If she remembered the Doctor or anything they did together for a second, she would burn up. She had to forever be in the dark; feeling as if something was needed to be remembered but couldn't.

Too many people had gotten too close. Too many people had been lost one way or another. The Doctor was done with all that. Yet, that too had cost him. He had rewritten a fixed point in time and changed the future, past, and present. The Ood had said his song was ending soon and it scared him. Every second he was around people, he spent in fear; waiting for a man to knock four times. He wasn't ready to go; not yet.

As he walked through the town's streets, no one really paid much attention to him. It seemed as if the place had had some sort of crisis recently and was trying to get back to normal life. Occasionally, someone would study him for too long and look away quickly when they realized he had noticed but no one asked questions or tried to make conversation. It was for the best in the Doctor's opinion.

The Doctor truly felt as if he should be careful here. Something was very wrong. The TARDIS had refused to accept Storybrooke's existence and his screwdriver was doing the same it seemed. There was something in the air that didn't belong but when he scanned he came up with nothing.

"So who are you supposed to be?" A young boy's voice asked behind him. The Doctor turned abruptly and found himself face to face with an eleven year old boy. His whole demeanor shown of curiosity and there was something else; a true and deep belief in just about everything.

"I'm not sure what you mean," The Doctor responded, glancing around the town square; wondering if the boy's parents were nearby.

"You're not in my book," The boy reached into his bag and pulled out an old leather bound book with the words "Once Upon a Time" scrawled across the cover, "Everyone here in this town is in here."

"You're saying everyone in this town is a fairytale character," The Doctor mused as he flipped through the pages and saw pictures of Snow White and the Evil Queen as well as some other well-known characters.

"The Evil Queen cursed everyone and brought them here," The boy explained, "They forgot who they were until a few weeks ago when my mom came and broke the curse with my help."

The Doctor looked between the book in his hands and the boy. He wasn't lying and it did make sense as to why the air here felt wrong. He was standing in a town that shouldn't even exist.

"I'm Henry, by the way," The boy smiled as he took his book back.

"The Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor," the man stated.

"Okay," Henry shrugged, "So wait, you're not in the book?"

"Afraid not," The Doctor replied, "But like you, I'm not from this world."

"What does that mean?"

The Doctor didn't answer. The information the boy fed him was a lot to take in. Alien technology wasn't at work here. It was a force much greater; something he did not under any circumstances meddle with. Magic always came with a price and in his world…

"How is there magic here?" The Doctor noticed the boy had started walking with him.

"Rumplestiltskin brought it after the curse was broken," Henry answered, "I wish he didn't. My mom and my grandmother, Snow White, fell through a portal and we don't know where they are or how to get them back."

"I'm sorry."

"My grandpa is working hard to find a way," The boy's tone was light, "He always finds Snow. They're True Love."

"But you don't just want to bring them back," The Doctor could see the look in the boy's eyes.

"I want to go to the Enchanted Forest," Henry piped up, "Learn to be a real knight and have everyone be back in their proper home world."

"I see," The Doctor nodded as he looked around. It all made so much sense. The TARDIS didn't recognize the town's existence because it simply wasn't supposed to be there. A curse had brought it and he suspected it was the reason he experienced what he did the first time he came here.

"Henry!" A man called from the other side of the street.

"Coming Gramps!" Henry waved at him.

"He's your grandfather?" The Doctor's mind was actually starting to hurt.

"The curse froze everyone for twenty-eight years," Henry explained quickly, "I gotta go!"

"Henry!" The Doctor called after him, "I hope you find a way to bring your family back!"

"Thanks!"

"Henry!" He called once more, "Bring them back. Don't worry too much about getting back to the Enchanted Forest. I might have a way to take care of that."

"Really?!"

"Here," He held out his hand, "You've got a phone. Let me see it."

Henry handed it over quickly and in seconds the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to not only allow it to call anywhere in the galaxy but also to call Martha's phone that was still in the TARDIS.

"When you've got your family back," He explained, returning the phone, "Give that number a ring and I'll come running to bring you all home."

Henry pocketed the phone and hugged the Doctor. The Time Lord noticed that his grandfather was watching with interest. The boy broke away, bid goodbye and took off to the other side of the street. The Doctor turned and headed back to his TARDIS; it was time to move on. For now.

"Who was that Henry?" David asked when his grandson reached him.

"The Doctor," Henry answered, "Just the Doctor. And he'll be back some day."

* * *

The wind swirled around, blowing the freshly fallen snow around in flurries as the sound of the TARDIS rang out into empty space once again. Just like always, there was no one around to see the ship appearing out of thin air and the animals that braved the cold scattered as fast as they could into hiding.

The Doctor stepped out and leaned against his old friend as he took in the wintry beauty of this forest in Maine. The TARDIS seemed to know whenever he had suffered to great a loss and for the past few years it had chosen this place as a place for him to heal. But he was tired of all the loss and he was angry. Angry at himself for not being able to stop the Weeping Angels from getting Rory in the end. Angry at Amy for not being able to live without her husband and choosing to let the Angel take her as well. Angry at River for just standing there and not doing anything more than telling him to come back into the TARDIS. And angry at the entire world for not letting anyone stick around with him without losing their lives or memories.

"Doctor?" River's voice came from inside the ship, "Where are we?"

"The Impossible Town," The Doctor answered sadly, "It's time to bring them all home."

While traveling with Amy, he had been secretly trying to find a way and it turned out the same way he was able to see Rose one last time was the same way he could open a portal and bring the town of Storybrooke back to the Enchanted Forest where they belonged. He couldn't wait to see the look on Henry's face. That boy had always stayed with him; his unwavering hope and curiosity and cleverness. The Doctor wondered how old he'd be by now; perhaps old enough to bring him along for a trip. Or perhaps he would bring his entire family for one trip. And it would be just _one_ trip. A look into the past and a look into the future. And then he'd be off to search for that girl back at the Asylum of the Daleks. Clara Oswald was going to be his next project. She had died but then was born again and had died and he suspected it was a never ending cycle. He had to know why.

But that could wait later. He was with River Song now; she was too worried after Amy and Rory's deaths to leave him on his own. He had a feeling that this was going to be one of the last times he saw her and he knew what that meant; her death. Another loss to add to his mile long list.

"What do you mean by impossible town?" River asked, following him closely.

"It's not supposed to be here," He started to explain, "Go look on any map and you'll see; no Storybrooke, Maine. Now why do you think that is?"

"Aliens?"

"That's what I thought when I first arrived here," He clapped his hands together, "But no. Would you believe that in this town are people from another world; a fairytale world?"

"Do you mean like Snow White and Cinderella and Prince Charming?" River clearly couldn't believe it.

"Yes and more," He grinned, "All the fairytale characters of this world are actually real; from another world. Snow White's stepmother cursed them all and it brought them here, erasing all their memories and giving them new ones. The curse was broken and these people have been trying to find a way back to the Enchanted Forest since."

"So what you're saying is," River tried comprehending what he said, "That you've got a way to return them to their world."

"Yes," The Doctor said as he pushed off the TARDIS and walked down the road. River Song watched for a little while before running after him.

"But you are always saying that traveling into different dimensions is impossible," She said once they reached the town. The woman couldn't help but notice that even for a small quiet town, this Storybrooke was abnormally silent. There wasn't a single soul to be seen on the streets. It almost seemed like a ghost town.

"Well," River said after a pause, "Where is everyone?"

The Doctor didn't answer. He merely took out the sonic and scanned the area. It was puzzling. He remembered the last time he was here how the streets, though quiet, still had a good number of people roaming about. And it hadn't really been that long since he was here last so where did everyone go? It almost looked as if everyone had packed up and left all at once. Was that even possible?

"Doctor," River cleared her throat, "What's going on?

"They're all gone," He muttered, trudging down the street; searching for any sign that someone was still here.

"But how? The technology they'd need to make a jump to another world with that many people doesn't exist! Not in this day and age! And you said that they weren't aliens; just humans from another world."

"Yes, I know, River," The Doctor turned to her, "But they didn't use technology to get here in the first place."

"What else could they have used?" River placed her hands on her hips, "Did they fall into a wormhole or something?"

"Something like that," The Doctor said as he looked around the streets, "In their world, magic exists; it thrives. So they used magic to get here; to open a portal. Here, in this world, science and technology is what thrives so they had to the two existing somehow in this town. I was going to use to TARDIS to find a weak point and reopen a portal for everyone."

"But there's no one here."

"Yes, I can see that River," The Doctor snapped, "But why? That's the answer we need to find. Why did they leave? Where did they go? And how did they get there?"

"What about 'who got them there'?"

"No, River," The Doctor smiled, "Because it was someone in this town. It had to be."

A piece of paper on the electric pole nearby flickering in the wind caught his eye. In his usual rambunctious attitude, the Doctor ran straight up to it and ripped it from the pole. It was a simple white paper with the words "Doctor! Follow the signs!" written on it. He flipped it back and forth from the back and front before noticing a small signature on the corner on the back. The note was from Henry.

Without a second thought, he began searching for more signs and soon was finding them everywhere. The signs all had "Doctor!" with an arrow pointing to the next sign. It wasn't long before he arrived to a building and was bounding up the stairs. He was so into his mission that he didn't hear River Song running after him, yelling his name.

"Doctor! Where are you going?" River called up the staircase. The Doctor was already using his sonic to open a door with a huge poster with the words "Here Doctor!" written across it.

"Following the signs!" He called as he burst into the room. It was a quaintly decorated loft space and he could instantly tell that it was the home of Henry's grandparents, Snow White and Prince Charming. He raced around the apartment searching for more signs but found none.

"Doctor…" River was at the table looking at an envelope. Scrawled in a child's handwriting was his name. River handed it to him and leaned against the table; waiting for him to read it to her.

The Doctor took the envelope in his hand and, just the like the first sign, looked at the front and back quickly and repeatedly. He gave it a quick sniff before ripping it open and taking the letter out that was found inside.

"Well, what does it say?" River asked after a moment's pause.

"Nothing of importance," The Doctor said quietly as he tucked the note away in his coat, "Time to move on."

"But Doctor," River once again found herself going after him, "Where are they?"

The Doctor stopped when he reached the bottom of the stairs and looked back up at the woman. She couldn't understand why everyone being gone upset him but she saw that it did. And she'd never understand. He was getting tired of running; of losing people. Sure, there was so much more to see in this world but if the TARDIS had managed to jump to the Enchanted Forest to bring this entire town of Storybrooke back, it would mean even more to see. He'd have found a way to jump the worlds and see what they had to offer. And if the TARDIS couldn't make a second trip then he'd have the whole of the Enchanted Forest, which he reckoned was as big a world as this, to explore.

But he couldn't validate a test now that there was no one that needed going to the other world. And knowing that there were all those other worlds with their history out there killed him. Knowing that he probably would never be able to reach them killed him.

"They went home," He said before leaving the building and making the return hike to the TARDIS. River ran to catch up and walked beside him. She knew not to push him now; he was hurting. Losing Amy and Rory the way he had had hurt him deeply and now just when he thought he could be useful and maybe gain new friends to fill that void; it was taken from him.

They walked in silence the entire trip and River entered the TARDIS without another word while the Doctor turned and took one last look at the sign "Welcome to Storybrooke". Almost as if it was a godsend, the winds picked up and the Doctor watched as the last bit of magic that remained removed the impossible town's existence and then died. It was quick but extremely painful to watch. It was as if the world was saying to him to never come back; to keep running.

There was a reason he rarely ever looked back and returned to places he had already been. Too many memories came with it. He had come here when he had lost his race to the Time War. He had come here after he had brought Donna back home with her memories of him erased. And he had come here when the girl who waited had made the ultimate sacrifice to be with the man she loved so that he wouldn't die alone. He had always come here in the moments when he felt truly alone and somehow this little Storybrooke had given him a small purpose; something to keep him moving despite the pain. And now that too was gone along with the town.

The Doctor closed the doors to the TARDIS and placed Henry's letter among all the other letter's he had received in the past. River was already setting the controls to leave; patiently waiting to see if he had a destination in mind. His whole demeanor had completely changed since they had arrived. She had thought that maybe the trip would cheer him up but it seemed to only depress him more. He set the coordinates before looking up at her.

"Time to move on," He said sadly before flicking a switch; sending the ship off to another place and time.

_**Fin**_


End file.
